Coconut Green Curry Chicken

It would be great if every meal could be tasty, healthy, and budget friendly, right? Also, some days I need it to be easy to throw together. One meal that I've been making almost weekly, even while visiting my sister and her family, is coconut green curry chicken. I always have a hard time getting the right mix of sweet, spicy, and tangy when I make anything curry, which means I spend about an hour getting the flavor right while the rest of the food gets cold or overcooked. Luckily, the wonderful people at Trader Joe's have noticed my plight and provided me with a solution. I am officially in love with Trader Joe's Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce. Now, I've been to Thailand, and even took cooking classes while I was there, so I will readily admit that this isn't the most authentic green curry sauce. But, for the price and the time-saving-ness I'm officially in love.

The first time I made this dish, I knew that I couldn't just throw the sauce on some chicken and call it dinner. I obviously needed some veggies and rice. I got the brown rice on the stove and then started digging in the fridge. We ALWAYS have carrots which have a great contrasting texture to the chicken if they're not cooked too mushy and a natural sweetness that complements the sweetness of the sauce. I also had one leftover tomato that didn't get used in the salad the night before and Adam and I had gotten a great deal on Yukon Gold potatoes a week or so back -- $2.99 for 10 lbs!

The biggest challenge for this dish was that everything needed to be cooked at different speeds but I wanted all of the pieces to take in the flavor of the sauce. By the time I'd realized this the first time I made Coconut Green Curry Chicken the chicken was already cubed and in the pan. Potatoes* are almost always successful in the microwave so I scrubbed them up and threw them in. Carrots, on the other hand, are almost never successful in the microwave (at least when I make them!) The only thing I could think of at the time was to boil them, which, looking back on it, was idiotic. The second time I made the dish I planned ahead much better and cooked the chicken in a preheated pan on one side, flipped it and layered the carrot chunks on, then lowered the heat and put the lid on. This way the carrots steamed on the chicken while the chicken cooked through. When the potatoes finished up in the microwave I let them sit until I could touch them without screaming in pain and then I peeled them and cubed them.

Once the chicken and carrots were done everything got piled into the pan with the chicken and the sauce was thrown on top. Since tomatoes get mushy so fast I didn't throw them in until the very end and they were nice and hot but still chewable. All of the flavors and textures worked really well together and the brown rice provided a nice base for the whole thing. It would go well with a garnish of fresh cilantro or basil, if you are lucky/well prepared enough to have some in your refrigerator. Adam, the carrot and salt addict of the house, also suggested a bit more salt to taste at the end, and I agree that it balanced the sweet and spicy better. This sauce is so good, though, that you could probably throw almost any mix of protein and veggies in a pan and end up with delicious!

*Some of you anti-carb people may be thinking "brown rice AND Yukon Gold potatoes? She must be CRaZy!" Each provide different nutrients to the meal and different kinds of fiber. Plus, if you know me, you know I try to fit as many carbs into a meal as possible!

**UPDATE!!
Here's the recipe in "recipe format" for those of you who don't want to search through the story for the ingredients and amounts!

• 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
  
• 3 Yukon Gold Potatoes
• 3 carrots, cleaned and sliced in circles 1/4 inch thick
• 1 large tomato or two small tomatoes, chopped
  
• 1 jar Trader Joe's Green Curry Simmer Sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt

1. Preheat the pan for the chicken, then poke holes in the potatoes and microwave them.
2. Spray pan with non-stick cooking spray, then add chicken and sprinkle it with the garlic salt.
3. When chicken is cooked on one side, flip it over, layer carrot slices on chicken, cover the pan, and turn the heat to low. Cook/steam for 3-5 minutes until the chicken is done.
   
4. Hopefully the potatoes will finish before the chicken does! Allow them to cool until you can touch them, then slice them into cubes that are smaller than the pieces of chicken.
5. When the chicken and carrots are finished, add the potatoes, Simmer Sauce, and tomatoes. Stir it all up and wait for it to bubble, then dig in!
   

Burrito Soup

The weather here in Minnesota was gray and rainy today. Rainy days always make me want comfort food, like soup or chili. One of my favorite soups is tortilla soup, but it's a bit time intensive and requires a lot of ingredients. I always feel like chili has too many steps, too, and with all of the chopping and browning the meat there are dozens of dishes to do at the end. My goal today was to make something somewhere between the two, with a similar flavor palate to tortilla soup and the heartiness of chili. After a bit of internet research (and a trip to the grocery store) I came up with a plan without knowing exactly how it would turn out, a risk I don't usually take in cooking. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised with the Burrito Soup that resulted.

Many of my friends might wonder what Minnesota has done to me when they find out exactly what went into the slow-cooker this morning. Remember, though, that the groceries are currently being paid for by one indebted law school student and one temporarily employed teacher, so budget is a huge consideration when I'm choosing ingredients. If you have any qualms about using canned or pre-prepared ingredients, avert your eyes now. (Don't worry, though, no cream of chicken soup, EVER, I promise!)

The recipe for this dish is almost contradictorily simple compared to the flavors that develop. I had defrosted three frozen chicken breasts yesterday, so this morning I put everything together before going to work. First into the crock pot went the chicken, followed by one packet of taco seasoning (I used the low sodium kind), one can of black beans, one can of corn, and one 12oz jar of salsa (I used Trader Jose's Salsa Authentica). I included the liquid from the beans and corn because my main fear from cooking chicken in the slow-cooker was that it would dry out. If you're anti- canned vegetable juice you can easily substitute chicken broth. After putting everything in, though, I realized I had gone overboard with liquid so I threw in a still-frozen chicken breast hoping it would thaw and cook. I set the cooker on low and left it alone for eight hours.

Eight hours for chicken? Yes, that seems like a long time, but it worked, I promise. In fact, after eight hours, I pulled the chicken breasts into smaller chunks with forks and left it for another two and a half hours! One thing that kind of grossed me out was that, since I poured the taco seasoning directly onto the chicken initially, it was still stuck there those eight hours later. It easily scraped off into the broth with a fork and left behind some of the flavor in the chicken. At this point I also realized that there was quite a bit more broth than I had anticipated, turning it more into soup than really juicy chicken. Adam had the idea of making up some brown rice and topping off our bowls with some freshly grated cheese, both of which lent a great deal to the end result.

The first bite was instantly recognizable -- burrito. You know how sometimes you make a burrito so full that all the insides fall out of the tortilla into mushy goodness? It was like that. Absolutely delicous. I wanted mine a bit spicier so I added a couple drops of hot sauce, and when I reheat a bowl for lunch tomorrow I plan on dicing up a tomato to go on top, but I think that's part of what makes this dish so neat. Just like making a burrito, once you have the basics you can easliy add the accents so that it's just the way you like it. And, one of my favorite parts of the dish? Only the slow-cooker, rice pot, bowls and spoons to wash in the end.

**UPDATE
It SNOWED here today in Minnesota! Burrito soup was a definite must for dinner so that we could warm up from the inside-out. Here's the exact recipe I used today, an improvement from last time.

• 1 lb defrosted boneless skinless chicken (I used breasts)
• 8 oz hot chipotle salsa (for the spicy and smokey)
• 8 oz salsa verde (I prefer Herdez since it doesn't have onions)
• 1 can black beans (drained)
• 1 can whole kernel corn (drained)
• 2 cups chicken broth

1. Layer the chipotle salsa across the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Place the chicken on the salsa in an even layer in the bottom of the pot to cover the salsa.
3. Pour the salsa verde on top of the chicken.
4. Add the cans of black beans and corn.
5. Slowly pour the chicken broth into the pot.
6. Set the slow cooker on low. If yours has a timer, set it for 7 hours.
   
7. After 7 hours of cooking, use forks to pull apart the chicken. The chicken has hopefully only been in contact with the two salsas, so this will be the first time the layers all get mixed up. Add salt/chicken broth to taste, cook for 1/2 hour more.

I enjoyed this on top of rice, but you may enjoy it without as well!

Pesto Pasta with Chicken Meatballs

I'll readily admit to anyone that I'm a big fan of reality television, especially when it's food and fashion related. I love that the contestants get thrown into ridiculous, improbable challenges which cause them to freak out and fail or pull it together to create something fabulous. Some days I feel like making dinner is one of those crazy challenges, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way. Last night definitely felt like one of those challenges.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to make a trip to Costco with my mom to stock up my fridge. That means I got staples like chicken breasts and peanut butter as well as tasty splurges like pesto and hummus. So, when I got home and found out that Adam's parents were in the area, and none of us had eaten dinner yet, and they wanted to stop by....and I'm sure you know where that ended up. So, even though I had a fridge full of food, the majority of it was frozen and I had 45 minutes to whip up something tasty for four people.

When I was rearranging the freezer I'd moved a pound of ground chicken to the fridge, so I first thought to cook it up like ground beef and throw it in with some whole wheat penne and the pesto I'd gotten at Costco. Looking in the cupboard, though, I realized I didn't have enough penne for everyone so I'd have to go with rotini. Rotini has lots of ridges, though, so I realized that if I just cooked up the chicken in a pan and threw it in with the pasta it would get lost. I started the water for the pasta, then tackled the chicken issue.

I'd originally grabbed the chicken for an ingredient in my spicy turkey/chicken burgers, so my next thought went to meatballs. But chicken meatballs? Anyone who's worked with ground chicken before knows that it's very wet and mushy, so I knew I needed some oatmeal to help it stick together since I didn't have any breadcrumbs. I mixed all the ingredients together but it was still super sticky and I had a bad case of salmonella hand from mixing. I couldn't form the chicken into a ball shape, so I heated up the oil and tried to strategically place slightly rounded blobs of chicken in the pan so they weren't touching. When they were browned I flipped them, and when they browned on the other side I flipped them again, added some chicken broth and scraped the yummy brown stuff off the bottom of the pan. After that I turned the heat down and put the lid on to let them cook through.

When the meatballs were done, everything in the pan went into the pot with the cooked, drained pasta. I scooped some pesto in, mixed it all together, and served it with a simple salad of romaine lettuce, tomato, and some homemade balsalmic-lime vinaigrette. Adam's parents brought us some lovely flowers and a sourdough baguette that rounded out the meal. The food was tasty, the company was lovely, and I didn't have to do the dishes. I'll score it a successful evening.